Game device



iii

Patented July 25, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 7 Claims.

My invention relates generally to amusement devices and moreparticularly to that class of device generally known as a die which canbe rolled over a table or other flat surface, so as to turn up certainnumbers or other indicia. Devices of this type can be used for playingvarious games of skill and chance and, as will become apparenthereinafter, the die of my invention lends itself to the playing ofvarious novel games.

It is one of the objects of my invention to provide a die which has alarge number of faces upon which various indicia may be placed so as tomake the die more readily adaptable to games of different kinds.

It is a further object of my invention to provide a die with which it ispossible to play both number and letter games and combinations of thetwo.

It is also an object of my invention to provide a die which is simpleand easy to construct and yet has an attractive and novel appearance.

Other objects and advantages of my invention will become evident fromthe following description of a preferred form of my invention and byreference to the accompanying drawing inwhioh:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of my preferred form of die, and

Figs. 2 to 7 are plan views of the six faces of the die.

Referring now to the drawing and particularly to Fig. 1 thereof, it willbe seen that the die of my invention comprises generally an octahedronin which the major axes or planes of axis have been extended outwardlyto form a plurality of webs or wings. Or, considering the die fromanother aspect, it can be said to be formed by three intersecting platesof substantially equal size forming eight right-angular quadrants ineach of which is placed an equilateral pyramid with its apex insertedinto the apex angle of the quadrant formed by the plurality of plates,thus giving in each quadrant an angular flat face or facet, the threecorners of which terminate at the edges of the three plates forming thequadrant in which the facet is placed, and providing therefore anangularly disposed facet surrounded by or enclosed by three webs orwings formed by the extending ends of the three plates beforementioned.

The plurality of webs formed by the intersecting plates above-mentionedare indicated by the numerals 50 in the drawing and the facets areindicated by the numerals 60, it being thought that since all webs arealike and all facets are alike and since each web and each facet isprovided with indicia in the form of numbers or letters, it will not benecessary to further indicate of each web is beveled off, so that theouter edge of the web is substantially parallel to the line of contactor point of juncture between. the web and the particular facet adjacentthereto.

As seen best by an inspection of Figs. 2 to 7, inclusive, each facet isprovided with a numeral, the numerals preferably running from 2 to 9,inclusive, and therefore totalling 44 for all facets. The numbers arepreferably disposed on the facets so that opposite facets will alwaystotal up to 11 so that when the die is rolled and falls in such aposition that a facet is substantially horizontal or may be said to beup the number on that facet subtracted from 11 will give the number onthe opposite facet which is at that moment down and obstructed fromView. The edges of the webs are also provided with numerical indiciawhich can, of course, be in the form of any type of number but arepreferably formed by a series of lines simulating roman numerals. In thepreferred form shown, these web edges are numbered with even numbersonly running from 2 to 12, the total number of each pair of opposededges being 14. Thus, when the die is rolled in such a way that a pairof web edges come up horizontally and no facet is horizontal the totalnumber of digits on the upturned edges, plus the total number of digitson the web edges which are totally hidden from view, will always equal14. The webs or wings 50 are preferably each provided with a letter orletters on each opposite face thereof, so that when the die is in a fiatposition as illustrated in Figs. 2 to '7, four letters will always bevisible except in those cases where a wing is provided with two lettersin which case, of course, five letters will be visible. In the caseswhere the die upon coming to rest stops in a position with one facet 60uppermost three wings will be visible from above, so that three letterswill always be visible and more if one or more of the wings is providedwith two letters; it being noted that there are 24 wings upon which toplace the 26 letters of the alphabet, so that it becomes necessary foronly two of the wings to have two letters, the rest of them having oneletter each.

In constructing the die of my invention, it should be so proportionedthat it has what may be said to be substantially equal balance, that isto say, when the die is rolled out over a table or board, it will haveas much tendency to make a three point landing with one facet 60uppermost as it will to make a flat landing where a pair of wing edgeswill be uppermost. I have found that beveling the corners of the wings5U greatly facilitates the production of this necessary balance althoughit is not essential that the corners be beveled in a flat straight line,as they may be rounded or snubbed in such a manner as to eliminate thesharp corners which otherwise would be present, and it is to beunderstood that when in the claims I use the term regular plates, I meanto include dies both with and without beveled, rounded, or snubbedcorners. Any suitable material can be used in the construction of myinvention, so long as it is durable and is adapted to receive indiciathereon, it being understood, of course, that various means may beemployed in the fabrication of the die, such means forming no part ofthis invention.

In the preferred form illustrated in the drawing, it will be seen that Ihave used Arabic numerals on the facets and pseudo Roman numerals on thewing or web edges with letters upon the faces of the wings. It will beunderstood,

,of course, that the particular type of lettering or numbering which Iemploy forms no part of this invention, but I have found that the typesherein illustrated greatly facilitate the ready distinguishability ofthe various parts of the die.

As before-mentioned, the die of my invention lends itself to the playingof many different games and to illustrate this ready adaptability of myinvention, I will briefly describe a few of the games which can beplayed with said die.

The simplest game of all perhaps is one closely akin to the well-knowngame of dice with this modification, that the number showing when thedie comes to rest on the three point landing can be taken as the pointnumber or the number to be thrown again and the difference between thepoint number and 11 will be the number of throws which the player has inorder to try and make his point. If he makes his point within therequired number of throws, he then has another chance to throw a pointnumber and so on. If however, he does not make his point within therequired number of throws, the die passes to the next player. In such agame, it will be seen that the player throwing a high point number, asfor instance a 7 or an 8, will score a greater amount if he repeats andmakes his point, however, he has fewer chances in which to make hispoint because the higher number subtracted from 11 gives a small numberof chances in which to throw the die.' On the contrary, the playerthrowing a low point number as for instance, 2 or 3, while scoring alarge amount upon making his point still has many more chances in whichto make that point than has the preceding player.

Another simple number game which can be played with the die of myinvention, employs all faces and edges of the die. While any aptterminology can be used for the game, I find that words Buying andSelling well describe the procedure which is as follows. When a playerupon throwing the die turns up a facet as is the case when the die makesa three point landing, he is said to have an opportunity to buymerchandise from his neighbor in an amount equal to the number turnedup. If in throwing the die, it makes a fiat landing, and the wing edgesare uppermost with their respective numbers, the player is said to sellto his neighbor an amount of merchandise represented by the numbersshowing. Various modifications and additional rules to this fundamentalprocedure can, of course, be employed and so long as the die issubstantially equally balanced, the chances of turning up a "buycombination are about equal to the chances of turning up a sell"combination. If desired, each of the players can be provided with agiven number of cards or markers, and when a facet is turned up theplayer is entitled to withdraw the number of markers from the bankindicated by the number on the facet turning up. If he turns up a wingedge, then he is obligated to pay the bank the number of markerscorresponding to the numeral on the wing edge which he has turned up asthe result of throwing the die.

Various letter games can also be played with my die which may becombinations or modifications of the well-known anagrams. For instance,if the player turns up a facet then he has three wing faces and,consequently, three letters added to his collection which he may use informing words or sentences. If he is fortunate enough to throw the diein such a way that it comes to rest on the wing edges, then four wingspaces are visible from above and that player adds four letters to hiscollection, thus giving him an advantage over the previous thrower.

While the form of my invention illustrated and described herein isdeemed to be the preferred form thereof, and fully capable of providingthe advantages and attaining the objects 'hereinbefore set forth, it isto be understood that it is merely illustrative of my invention and thatvarious modifications which will become apparent to those skilled in theart are meant to be included in the appended claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. A game device of the character described which comprises a generallycube-like die formed by three equal sized regular plates intersecting atsubstantially right angles to one another forming eight equal quadrants,each quadrant being provided with a facet angularly disposed withrespect to the faces of the wings formed by said intersecting plates.

2. A device as described in claim 1 in which the facets presenttriangular faces, spaced away from the point of juncture of said plates.

3.. A device as described in claim 1 in which each of the facets isprovided with a different number and each of the wing faces is providedwith a letter.

4. A device as described in claim 1 in which each of the facets isprovided with a number, the numbers on the facets being chosen so thatthe total of numbers on oppositely-disposed facets always equals eleven;

5. A device as described in claim 1 in which the facets are eachprovided with a number and the edges of the wing portions are eachprovided with a number.

6. A device as described in claim 1 in which each of the wing edges isprovided with a different number, the total of all of the numbers on allof the wing edges being equal to forty-two.

7. A device of the character'des'cribed which comprises an octahedronprovided with outwardly-extending wings of equal size and shape on itsmajor axes, said wings dividing the facets of the octahedron, thecorners of said wings being beveled, there being numeric indicia on eachof the facets of said octahedron and on each of the wing edges and therebeing letters on each of the wing faces.

ROY E. HILKER.

